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Call me crazy, but this is probably one of my most used kitchen gadgets. No doubt, Thanksgiving would be a bust in my house without it, because I couldn’t carve a turkey to save my life without it, but that isn’t the only thing I use it for.

Over the years I have become a pro at making sandwich trays all because of this amazing little gadget. I simply spread the bread out across the counter, make the sandwiches and then stack the sandwhiches 3-4 high and WHAM, I go to cutting. Ahhhhh, lets tackle 3 large sandwich trays in a matter of an hour.

How about cutting fruit & veggies? Easy-peasy with an electric knife!

This thing really is a time & life saver and at a VERY affordable price…. why doesn’t everyone own one of these? They retail for less than $30.00!!

Like this:

Not your grandma’s pressure cooker, folks! This thing is down right amazing!! No lie, I was a bit scared at first. I mean, we have all heard the stories of an exploding pressure cooker, right? Then my aunt told me about this particular pressure cooker and she just raved about it so, I decided to take the plunge and buy it. I knew she would never steer me wrong after all.

Can we say:

ONE OF THE BEST DECISIONS OF MY LIFE? Seriously! I used to be a crock-pot queen, but now I am just a pressure cooker queen and I only use my crock-pot for some of old favorites. Cooking time is just amazingly fast with a pressure cooker and I am in love! Its large 8 qt capacity is perfect for our family of 6 (and whatever “extras” may be at our house on any given night.)

It is user friendly and super easy to clean! My favorite part!! Forgot to defrost dinner? No big deal. I cook frozen chicken breast in it at least once a week…. at least!

I will be posting some of my favorite electric pressure cooker recipes in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here’s the 411 on the Elite 8qt Electric Pressure Cooker:

Large 8qt capacity

Suitable for preparing many family-size meals

High-pressure, high-temperature cooking

Cooks food rapidly and with less power

Also allows for high-altitude cooking

Multiple cooking options

Includes functions for pressure cooking, stewing, braising, simmering and roasting

Select the appropriate menu button on the cooker and cooking is done automatically

Takes the guesswork out of cooking soups, stews, chili, rice, meat and vegetables

Touchpad digital control with LED display

For easily setting and monitoring cooking times

Choose from preset or user-programmable cooking times

User can set pressurized cooking time from 0-99 minutes for customized cooking

24-hour preset delay timer

Allows user to program cooking to begin in up to 24 hours

Cooking starts automatically at end of countdown

More Features

Removable nonstick interior pan

Indicator beep at end of cooking cycle

Automatically switches to Keep Warm at end of cooking cycle

Automatic resumption of cooking when power is restored after a power failure

I have been reading more and more about people making their own laundry detergent, cleaning products, etc. After looking over many different articles, blogs and posts I decided it was something I wanted to try myself.

Lets face it: we ALL want to save money! That was my main reason for trying it. With six people in our house, there are always clothes waiting to be washed. One of my favorite things about my house is the 14′ x 14′ laundry room. Its nearly as big as my bedroom (or is it bigger? hmmm). Anyway…. its a huge laundry room, one of the most used spaces in our home and I love it. I have a table to fold clothes on, shelves to put the folded clothes on, and a hanging bar to hung clothes up immediately.

We also have an upright freezer in there and one whole wall is lined in shelves that we use as our overflow pantry. Above the washer and dryer are more shelves used for “utility” type things and extras like oil lamps, foot baths, Igloo water cooler, etc. Needless to say, our laundry room is a well used room.

But back to the laundry detergent: I decided to try it out. So, one of my (many) projects over this past weekend was to make laundry detergent. Now mind you, my darling husband thinks I am crazy, and my ex-husband thinks I have totally gone off my rocker. But oh well…. when I have saved my little family some cold hard $$ that when I get to laugh at all of THEM!

The total start up cost of this “project” was about $20. I purchased the following things:

Now, I didn’t use NEARLY all of that for my first batch, but I couldn’t see explaining to Walmart that I only wanted 1 cup of Borax & 1 cup of Washing Soda, so I went ahead and bought the whole box they sold it in! 🙂

I have seen many recipes using Fels-Naptha soap, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I saw the “spot” for it in two stores, but they were out so I went with the Octagon soap instead. From what I have seen, any all-purpose bar soap will work: Fels-Naptha, Octagon, Zote, Ivory.

Step 1: Grate 1 whole bar of Octagon Soap

It kind of looks like cheese huh?

Step 2: Mix the grated soap in a pot with 4-5 cups hot water on medium heat until the soap melts down completely. DO NOT let it get to a boil. Stir in continuously.

Step 4: Fill bucket 1/2 full with HOT water. Add 10-15 drops of essential oil for every 2 gals of water. (I used about 25 drops total even though I used more than 4 gals of water.) Mix until well blended.

Yes, I brought the bucket onto the porch and used a drill with a mixer attachment on it!

Step 5: Fill the bucket the rest of the way up with hot water and mix well.

Step 6: Cover and let set over night. Once it has set, it may appear clumped up or like gel or may be watery. (Mine was a mixture of gel and watery.) NO BIG DEAL! Just stir it up and then put into containers (I am using emptied liquid Tide containers).

USE: 1/2 cup per load of laundry

Now I am sure you want to know the COST of this right? Here is my breakdown:(1 – 5-gal bucket not included in price below)